Summer exam for tires is a good idea
Whether you’re driving to the beach on a sizzling day or hitting the freeways for a long summer road trip, the condition of your vehicle’s tires could mean the difference between life and death.
On a driving vacation the last thing you want to do is load up the family and luggage in a vehicle with underinflated or worn-out tires, safety experts say.
Each year an estimated 23,000 crashes, including about 535 fatal accidents, involve blowouts or flat tires, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Checking tire pressure is crucial, says David Skaien, auto repair specialist with AAA and the Automobile Club of Southern California. Underinflated tires can lead to disaster, particularly when the weather is hot and the vehicle is overloaded, he warns.
As Dan Zielinski, spokesman for the Rubber Manufacturers Assn., a Washington trade group that represents tire makers, puts it, “Heat is the enemy of a tire.”
Long, high-speed drives on tires with low pressure build up heat and can lead to blowouts.
“Driving on underinflated tires -- even on short trips -- can cause damage internally to the tire. The damage is cumulative,” Zielinski says.
Tire safety gained attention in 2000 after hundreds of deaths and injuries in rollover accidents involving Ford Explorer sport utility vehicles were linked to certain Firestone tires. Federal investigators believed that the accidents were caused, in part, when tread separated from Firestone tires that were underinflated.
Driving on underinflated tires can damage the tire’s sidewalls because they come in contact with the pavement. In turn, damage to the sidewalls and tread weakens the tire and can lead to a flat tire or blowout. Driving on underinflated tires also cuts fuel economy, Skaien says.
To improve tire safety, NHTSA Administrator Jeffrey W. Runge last month announced new federal regulations that included stricter tire testing and higher performance standards. Under the new rules, tires on SUVs and other light trucks must meet the same performance standards as tires on passenger cars.
The tests will increase the maximum speed at which tires are tested for endurance. The regulations also call for auto manufacturers eventually to put tire sensing monitors on new vehicles to warn drivers when the air pressure is low. Only a few models currently on the market offer such updated tire pressure information.
Checking tire pressure is an easy task. But a survey this year by the rubber manufacturers association found that about 86% of drivers either don’t know how to properly check tire pressure or don’t do it regularly, Zielinski says.
“That confirms what folks in the tire industry had long suspected -- tire maintenance is not a high priority for American motorists,” he says.
Zielinski warns that it is virtually impossible to determine whether a tire is underinflated simply by looking at it.
Radial tires today are so well constructed that they can be 50% underinflated yet still appear to be OK. So it’s important, Zielinski says, that motorists use a tire pressure gauge or go to a service station to have the pressure checked.
A 2001 NHTSA study found that 9% of passenger vehicles had at least one bald tire and that about one-third of light trucks had at least one significantly underinflated tire.
In addition, the rubber association’s study found that 45% of motorists surveyed “wrongly believe that if they are taking a trip with a fully loaded vehicle they are better off if their tires are a bit underinflated,” Zielinski says.
And nearly 7 of 10 drivers surveyed said they didn’t know how to tell if their tires were bald.
Here are tire safety tips from AAA and the Rubber Manufacturers Assn.:
* Check your tire pressure at least once a month and before any long driving trip. Make sure to check all the tires, including the spare.
* The correct tire pressure varies from vehicle to vehicle, so check your owner’s manual to determine the recommended pressure. And note: In many vehicles the correct pressure for the front tires is different from that for the rear tires.
* Skaien of AAA also urges motorists to check their tires often for signs of thin tread or uneven tread wear. In addition, he says, drivers should look for things like cuts or nails that could cause the tire to deflate.
He further advises checking for bubbles on the tire’s sidewalls, another sign of underinflated tires.
Jeanne Wright responds in this column to automotive questions of general interest. Write to Your Wheels, Business Section, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. E-mail: jeanrite@aol.com.
